Oxysarcodexia luriza, Buenaventura & Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2021

Buenaventura, Eliana, Valverde-Castro, César & Wolff, Marta, 2021, New carrion-visiting flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from tropical dry forests of Colombia and their phylogenetic affinities, Acta Tropica 213, pp. 1-14 : 6-8

Oxysarcodexia luriza sp. nov.

( Fig. 4 )

Type material. Holotype ♂ (deposited at CEUA): Co [ Colombia] at [Atlántico department] Usiacury Vda Luriza, Reserva / Natural Bosque seco [ dry forest ] / 10̊45′10.72″N 75̊02′08.59″W 187 m / VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] copro [human feces] dia [day] 29 Mar 2013 C. / Valverde CEUA 85,337 [hand written] // [red label] HOLOTYPE ♂ / Oxysarcodexia / luriza Buenaventura , / Valverde-Castro & Wolff, 2020. [Holotype in good condition; male terminalia dry-mounted and glued on a squared piece of card and pinned under the source specimen.] Paratypes: 1♂: same data as holotype ( CEUA); 1♂: same data as holotype but 30 Mar 2013 C. Valverde CEUA 88,328 [hand written] ( CEUA); 4♂: Co [ Colombia] ce [Cesar department] Copey Vda Tierras Nuevas Fca [farm] Los Caminos de la Vida Bosque [forest] 10̊13′34.0″N 73̊47′38.9″W 493 m VSR [Van Someren-Rydon trap] pez [decomposing fish] dia [day] 17 Mar 2013 C. Valverde CEUA 85,253 [hand written] ( CEUA); 1♂: same data but ( ZMHB); 2♂: same data but copro [human feces] dia [day] 17 Mar 2013 C. Valverde CEUA 85,248 [hand written] ( ZMHB) .

Diagnosis. Asmall to medium-sized species with the following, unique combination of character states in the male: cercal prong straight; cercal tip completely bare and shiny black; pregonite black, strongly sclerotized and uniformly curved; phallus reddish and slightly bent anteriorly; vesical arm-shaped lever curved; outer membranous undulations of the distal section of the vesica are directed ventroapically and they run at a lower level than the median part of the distal section of the vesica; distal section of the vesica W-shaped from apical view.

Description. Male. Total length 7.0 mm (n = 10, SV = 0.74).

Head. Fronto-orbital and parafacial plates with intense golden microtrichosity and postocular strip with golden microtrichosity; parafacial plate bare. Frontal vitta blackish. Frons with a row of 7–9 frontal setae. Outer vertical seta not differentiated from postocular setae. Gena and postgena blackish with golden microtrichosity; gena with blackish setulosity; postgena with mostly blackish setulosity and a few yellowish setulae posteriorly. Antenna brown; pedicel length more than twice its width; arista long and plumose on three basal fourths. Proboscis dark brown. Palpus blackish.

Thorax. Black in ground color, entirely covered in silver microtrichosity, interrupted by three longitudinal equibroad black or brownish vittae. Chaetotaxy: Acrostichals 0 + 1 (hair-like), dorsocentrals 2 + 4 (2 anterior shorter), intra-alars 2 + 2, supra-alars 1 + 2, postpronotals 2, postalars 2, notopleurals 4 (2 long primaries and 2 shorter subprimaries), scutellum marginal 2, discals 1, katepisternals 3, postalar wall setulose. Wing hyaline; vein R1 bare dorsally; vein R4+5 setulose dorsally not reaching crossvein r-m; third costal sector bare ventrally. Legs blackish with weak silver microtrichosity; mid femur with 5 median anterior setae, 2 preapical and with ctenidium (oval cross-section); hind femur with 1 row of anterodorsal and 1 row of anteroventral setae; mid tibia with 1 anterodorsal and 1 posterodorsal; hind tibia with 3 anterodorsal, 3 posterodorsal setae and without apical posteroventral seta.

Abdomen. Tergites and sternites blackish with patches of silver microtrichosity dorsally on tergites 1–3, golden microtrichosity dorsally on tergites 4–5 and golden microtrichosity laterally on tergites 1–4; tergite 5 yellowish with dorsal golden microtrichosity.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 yellowish; posterior margin with a deep cleft; inner margin of each side of the cleft slightly expanded, making the cleft narrow, with subparallel sides; each expansions with a subsquared distal margin. Syntergosternite 7 + 8 yellowish, with golden microtrichosity, scattered setulae and 8 strong marginal setae. Epandrium yellowish, with golden microtrichosity and scattered setulae. Cerci reddish with golden microtrichosity proximally and black and shiny on the cercal apex; cercal base bent posteriorly and cercal prong straight in lateral view; cercal prong abruptly narrowed near the base and equibroad along its length to the pointed apex. Surstylus wide, with a rounded apex, and sparse marginal and discal black setulae. Postgonite dark brown, slender, slightly curved apically, with a hook-shaped apex. Pregonite sickle-shaped, narrow, tapering and uniformly curved, with a acute apex. Phallus with a desclerotized band between basi- and distiphallus. Paraphallus antero-proximally with a lateral triangular extension above the vesica; paraphallus slightly bent ventrally. Vesica strongly sclerotized and reddish proximally; vesical arm-shaped lever not elongated and strongly angled in lateral view; distal section of the vesica with a W-shaped ornamentation consisting of a medial sclerotized convex undulation that continues in an outer concave membranous undulation, which ends in membranous tip pointing to the proximoventral part of the phallus. Acrophallus with a short median process, two lateral styli and circular capitis. Juxta sclerotized, yellowish, hood-shaped with a proximal convex membranous expansion, with the medial juxtal margin smooth and notched in frontoapical view.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL – Colombia (Atlántico, Cesar).

Biology. Oxysarcodexia luriza sp. nov. was collected only in tropical dry forests, which indicates anthropophoby or asynanthropy. The adult males are attracted and possibly feed on decomposing fish and human feces.

Etymology. The specific epithet, which should be treated as a noun in apposition, refers to the type locality, the Luriza Nature Reserve. Some of the few relictual primary tropical dry forests in the Atlántico department are protected in this Reserve, which has important vegetation and soil cover, place of refuge for many native species in danger of extinction such as howler monkeys. Thus, this species honors this Reserve area and managers behind it, who make collective efforts to protect the threatened tropical dry forests of the Colombian Caribbean.

Remarks. This species is similar to Oxysarcodexia comparilis (Reinhard, 1939) , Oxysarcodexia culminata (Aldrich, 1916) and Oxysarcodexia occulta Lopes, 1946 . However, differences in the terminalia can aid their separation. Only Oxysarcodexia luriza sp. nov. has the cercal tip completely bare and shiny black ( Fig. 4D ), while O. comparilis , O. culminata and O. occulta have at least short subapical or apical setulae on the cercal tip, which can be dark but never completely bare and shiny black. The phallus and pregonite of O. luriza sp. nov. also resembles those of O. comparilis , but O. luriza sp. nov. can be separated by the reddish phallus slightly bent anteriorly ( Fig. 4C ) and the very dark pregonite ( Fig. 4C–E ). The shape of the cercal prong and vesical arm-shaped lever can also be used to distinguish O. luriza sp. nov. from O. culminata . The cercal prong is slightly angled in O. culminata while straight in O. luriza sp. nov. ( Fig. 4C ), and the vesical arm-shaped lever is angled in O. culminata while curved in O. luriza sp. nov. The phallus profiles of O. luriza sp. nov. and O. occulta are very similar, but the juxta is slightly projected anteriorly in O. occulta while it is symmetric and uniformly rounded in O. luriza sp. nov. ( Fig. 4E ). Also, the outer membranous undulations of the distal section of the vesica are longer and they run at the same level as the median part of the distal section of the vesica in O. occulta , while these undulations are smaller in O. luriza sp. nov., directed ventroapically and they run at a lower level than the median part of the distal section of the vesica ( Fig. 4C–E ).

Figures

Fig. 4. Oxysarcodexia luriza sp. nov., holotype ♂. A. Habitus, left lateral view. B. Head and anterior part of thorax, left lateral view. C. Terminalia, left lateral view. D. Terminalia, dorsal view. E. Terminalia, left ventrolateral view. Abbreviations: ce, cerci; j, juxta; po, postgonite; pp, paraphallus; pr, pregonite; sr, surstylus; v, vesica.